I’m gradually surveying the Jewellery Quarter by default , as I work through the City Council’s database of listed buildings. It’s a fascinating journey of urban renewal. Its a very mixed area, with lots of apartment conversions – some architecturally tasteful, some just an eyesore of erected building materials; lots of hip small knowledge and professional companies and their feeding stations of equally hip restaurants, bars and cafés; masses of jewellery workshops and shops and the odd bit of good old Brum metal-bashing, together with some very derelict parts looking very forlorn. Mix in stalled building developments, casualties of the credit crunch and you’ve got a mapper’s heaven and probably an urban planner’s hell! Here are some of the best listed buildings I found, along with some falling into decay.
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